Arsenal vs. Tottenham

Arsenal v. Tottenham

It has been 9 years and 51 weeks since Tottenham jumped on top of Arsenal early at White Hart Lane, with two goals on their first two shots of the match. Vieira got us back into it, but two second half red cards let Spurs kill off the match. Not losing to your closest rivals in practically a decade really is a remarkable feat. Credit should go to Arsene Wenger for this, and I would go as far to say that this achievement is as great as The Invincibles or either of the doubles.

Moving onto tomorrows match. Both teams come off of a disappointing weekend result and an impressive midweek victory over Merseyside opponents. The Arsenal players should be more rested than their neighbours because, even though the Tottenham bench is 'stronger' than Arsenals, Spurs still needed to play their starters to see off Everton. Anywho, with stakes so high in the league, this promises to be a classic affair.

Quick Vital Quotes:

Arsene Wenger had this to say on the 'equality' of Arsenal and Tottenham's squad: 'I don't share that opinion. It's only an opinion and what is good about our job is that it's about performances not opinions. I believe the most important thing is what happens on the football pitch.'

'Our supporters will have their opinion and the Spurs players will have their opinions - that's part of the game, but the only thing that's important is the quality of our performance against Spurs. I'm happy with the players we have and I don't compare them with Spurs. I've got belief in my own players.'

Arsenal Team News:

The biggest news is the lack of news regarding who will start in goal. After the Liverpool game, I expected that Fabianski would retain his spot, but after suffering a mysterious thigh strain, the Pole is out for 3 to 4 weeks. This leaves Almunia and Mannone. In my opinion, the Spaniard is a better keeper and should start, but keeping him on the bench for the West Ham match was one game too far. So I would expect Mannone to start come Saturday.

Besides Fabianski, there is no new injury news to report. Denilson, Rosicky, Djourou, Wilshere, and Walcott are all still out, but Samir Nasri will return to the bench.

Player to watch: Gallas and Vermaelen

With Defoe suspended, Peter Crouch will start alongside Robbie Keane. This will be Gallas and Vermaelen's biggest test, as a partnership, so far. We have a terrible defensive record against him, and if I was a betting man, I would have to put something on him getting at least one.

Tottenham Team News:

Defoe, dos Santos, Modric, and Aaron Lennon are all out for Harry. Woodgate and King are listed as probable, but from what I've read, some Spurs fans wouldn't be surprised to see Dawson and Bassong keep their place in the centre of the defence.

Player to watch: David Bentley

With the world's fastest penguin out injured, David Bentley will get a rare start. He will play a fantastic game, and then disappear for the rest of the season.

Match Facts & Stats

Arsene Wenger is gunning for his 1000th league point in England. He currently has 997 Premier League points.

The Gunners have dropped only four points from a possible 30 in their last 10 Premier League home meetings with Spurs.

A league high of 12 different nationalities have scored for Arsenal this season.

Tottenham have scored nine goals in their last three matches against Arsenal in all competitions.

Ref Watch:

Mark Clattenburg will be the head official for this match.

Match Prediction:

The 145th league North London derby will be a fantastic encounter, unless the early kickoff sucks some spunk out of the match. I will go with a 4-2 win for the Arsenal. I don't care about the irony of the scoreline. Spurs will score, but we'll be able to outscore them.

Next Fixtures:

4/11 (Wed) - AZ Alkmaar (h) - Champions League

7/11 (Sat) - Wolverhampton (a) - Premier League

21/11 (Sat) - Sunderland (a) - Premier League

The match will be on Sky in England and ESPN2 in the States. Have a good weekend everyone. Common Arsenal!!

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My thinking too diaby has just been a mess. His positioning has been bad preveting Gael going forward and he has passed to the spuds too often. The whole team did not gel until the magic one minute. We now have to show some resilience and show how srong we really are.

no way Tpowell, take off diaby and replace with nasri, then the team is complete! let's hope our boys push on from here and not sit back and let spuds back in the game. 49 seconds for the second goal, woohoooo :)

We are cra# at the moment the two goals only plaster over the truth. And Diaby? my long dead granny would play better but lets face it it's the manager that selects the team and no point in getting on Diaby's back, cant understand why he keeps on starting with him.Put him on when we are winning games 3 nil for the last 20 to 30 min to build up his confidence but dont start him!!!

we were without Theo, Rosicky, and Denilson. Nasri didn't play because he's still recovering, and Bendtner had to be subbed off in the first half. So we're missing even more players than you, so stop with that excuse.... Of course, I thought you lot had a stronger bench than ours? oh well

we had more key players out, stop complaining... and weren't you the one that was on here yesterday talking about how you had a squad full of 'full internationals'? where is that great squad depth? we had far more key players out

TPowell How did you have more key players out?? We had our BEST 3 out. I've not come on hear to argue the toss so don't be a****. Arsenal were by far the better team today and like I said we played *****. If you had Fabrigas, Persie and Arshavin out that would be the equivalent. If you can't see that then your just kidding yourself.

You miss Lennon, we miss Theo. You miss Modric, we miss Denilson. You miss Defoe, we miss Rosicky. All of those players are on par with each other. Not to mention Nasri didn't play because he was still recovering, and Bendtner went out after half an hour. But you lot should have been able to overcome that, what with your squad full of 'full internationals' as you put it.

We played them at sh!*e hart lane with 10 men no Fabregas and no Adepaymemore last year and they couldnt beat us. Let him believe what he wants and make excuses. Yesterday they had a better squad because the Pikey Wizard Robbie keane told him that and foolishly he believed him.

On a par with Arsenal, pffffttttttt. Absofackinlutely hilarious. Seeing the scum drop back dejectedly onto their natural state of all fours and perform the annual early slope off back to their morlock hovels never gets tiring. Seriously tinytotts do yourselves a favour and move your prospective shiny new shrine of whine - your new still smaller than the grove Palace of pain and phuck right off to Milton Keynes where you can fight it out for the Dons for bragging rights. A club much more at your level. You'll enjoy the proliferaton of roundabouts too as you're used to going round in circles. Seriously you must be sooooo sick of being our beeyatches eh? FOREVER IN OUR SHADOW. :)

You can't compare Modric, Lennon, and Defoe to Fabregas, Arshavin and van Persie. Those players are World Class and the ones you are comparing them to are not on the same level. We were missing Rosicky, Walcott, Nasri and Denilson. Those are key players to us too. It's not our fault we have better players to fill in for those we miss.

MJBSpur, there's such a thing as being gracious in victory and still being of sound mind. Your squad is still very good but can you even claim without being delusional that those three are anywhere near as good as Cesc, RvP and Arshavin?

The best team won no question. If we had our strongest team out you would still probably have won, youre the better side. Alas, There was a gaping hole in our attack however and TPowell youre missing the point. Our 3most important attacking players are Modric, Lennon and Defoe. By a country mile. You were missing some very good squad players, if you had RVP, Arshavin and Fabregas out then you guys would feel the loss. They are pivitol to our team. Rosicky hasnt kicked a ball in 18months - LD even thought hed retire, how is he vital to your side? Smashing player yes, but if he left his role could easily be filled. Lennon munks all over Walcott and as for Modric, please dont insult me by saying Denilson is as good as him, because hes not. Not in a million years. And Tom14, how would we have been weaker with Defoe? The guys on FIRE and is way, way, way, way, way better than Robbie Keane. Having said that you played really well second half and fully deserved the win. But stop taking the ***** by suggesting we were in some way at full strength, or that our probelms were equal. Well done scummers.

no, you miss the point HY, take away Fab, Arsh, and RVP, we'd replace them with Nasri, Eduardo, and Rosicky and still beat you -- such is the gulf between the two clubs. The fact that we had to play such mediocre players as Eboue and Diaby should tell you that we were missing plenty

"how is he vital to your side?" - well, he is our first choice right winger and a much better player than Bendtner, a bigger gap than the difference between Lennon and Bentley in my view (even though I would have Bendtner over Lennon). As for Denilson vs Modric - they are not similar players, but Denilson is a vital player when he is fit. He is our team player. I would agree that, as a winger, Lennon is better than Walcott, and the fact that Theo has more assists/goals could be down to him playing in a good team.

to all yu spuds, even when Defoe, Lennon and Modric have played for yu, have yu beaten us even once? dis was always going to be ur excuse once the game was over. all talk big talk before the game, what happened to all of that? accept the truth, ur nowhere close to us, we had a bit of a lean patch in da last few years and even when we were at our lowest, yu cudnt get one over us, and now when we're getting back to where we belong, ur falling right back to where yu've always been, a million years behind us, that's a fact, deal with it..

i'm really happy about the win, but is anyone else a bit disappointed here? that shud have been atleast 5-0 there, can't believe Eddie missed all those chances. it's alrite, even the best is allowed to have an off day once in a long while..

Great victory and clean sheet. Old keano not saying alot not is he? Didn't even realize he was playing today! A word on diaby, I can understand wenger wanting him in the team because of his height but what's the point when doesn't use it to his advantage? Can't wait for nasri to find full fitness and for rosicky and denny to come from injury and keep him out of the team.

lennon, defoe, modric aaah diddums. it aint panto season yet and you'd still need another 4 dwarves for a decent shot at staging one. Plus where the hell would you find a snow white in t*ttenham?? Make no mistake we'd have still ripped you apart even if those munchkins had followed the seven sisters road, followed the seven sisters road, follow de follow de...aah you get the picture.

If it weren't for his height Gomes would be a dead ringer for Dopey, King played like Sleepy today and no-one could take the role of Grumpy away from 'arry. Even then they'd be missing Happy (though Modric, Defoe and Lennon would have been pleased to miss the humbling)

Of course, I'm seeing most pundits are still refusing to give us any credit, and instead focusing on spuds.... that they really took it to us in the first 40 minutes... well, 1) matches last 90 minutes, don't they? and 2) they didn't have a shot on target in the first half, and didn't even test Amunia until after we were three up. Don't the pundits realise that keeping us out of goal for 40 minutes is sort of irrelevant when your best chance was that left footed volley by Bentley that missed by 10 yards?

Someone told me that Hoddle said that Spuds played well enough to be 0-0 at half time. If they had then wouldn't the score have been 0-0 at half time? According to 'arrys post match interview he reckoned that if they hadn't conceded three goals they would have got something out of the game. Seems Spuddish is language all of its own completely beyond the comprehension of ordinary folk.

Hoddle also said that handicapped people are paying for the sins of a previous life, it's safe to say he's well out of the circle of trust when it comes to someone I'd go to for an opinion! As for Twitchy check out his facial expression at 1:48 on the vid. I lolled my tits off http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8335876.stm

Hope Keane tries to play the same mind games with France just before the Ireland - France game. God knows they need help with Domenech at the helm. Keane could try something like:
" I'm better than Henry"......

I just don`t understand some Spurs fans making excuses about players missing, Even with a full strength team we would of struggled IMO. We will See at the Lane I am sure it will be a closer game and just hope our manager and players can refrain form mouthing off.

Match of the day really hate us. We win the NLD 3-0 and they would rather put on less meaningful games with all due respect to fullham,Liverpool and Portsmouth. If the Manchester derby was a 0-0 u can bet your ********* it would be shown first. (I don't even know why I'm complaining about this lol)

We've won a few games since then Uscock. And you've lost some. Rather embarrasingly today given all the pre-match boasts. Wasn't it great they way Fabregas glided through your defence and nutmegged King before making Gomes look silly. Hope his celebration didn't upset you too much.

well you won today but Harry is right you wont win the League arsene wenger takes the money and hasnt won you anything for quite a few years he has you all worked out bit of coat throwing all for the audience ,but he knows he hasnt done that well for a while.
With a number of our players joing the fray currently out or suspended well be right.

US Cock why behave like yr name "cock". Yr Manager is very good with teams like yrs that need to escape relegation however, he does not know a thing abt winning a premiere league so he should shut the **** up. Arsenal did not even leave the 1st gear today and still beat you hands down. Listen if Arsene says it is possible, you better believe it. Like when he said we could go a full season unbeaten and Yids like you were laughing at him. Well we got the Invincibles and you've got big mouth "Arry".

No Harry is a smart guy hes not really a conceited type of guy who learnt his tricks watching drunk frogs in his parents pub, he dosent throw his coat and do all the "are the fans watching me stuff".
This is one game and well move onto the next one i,f thats your 1st gear what do you call the gear when you allowed Westham to draw with you ?(Stupid Gear) we had some key boys missing well be right up there ,you wont win anything this year thats for sure.
Arry said so.
The new stadium and facilities Spurs are building are impressive its a better managed club and well soon be the Premier North London sucess machine.

How predictable that Hansen and Co on Match of the Day chose to berate the defending for Cesc's goal. You can bet that if that was Gerrard running through for Liverpool scoring like that they'd have been purring about his drive and power and determination. Cesc at 22 delivers midfield masterclasses and hardly gets the same praise as Gerrard.

they will keep telling us they had all those players missing, but all those were attacking ones. what about the defence? it's been pathetic all throughout, and against the big teams, they're always found out. 9 goals conceeded in 3 games vs arsenal, utd and chelsea. just not good enough, period..

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